Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .

How many of you shared this common bond of poverty with Mitt and Ann Romney while you, too, were desperately trying to make it as students at BYU? [They had to sell some stock to 'get by']

Let's focus, for the moment, on the Romneys' self-proclaimed hardships in the poor college student trenches. According to their own account, they acutely felt your financially-strapped poor-Mormon-student pain. Here's their personal, heart-wrenching story of scarcity, scrimping and sacrifice, as only they can tell it:

"'Mitt Romney and Ann: the Students 'Struggling' So Much That They Had to Sell Stock'

"Mitt Romney is going around saying that he made all his money himself, aside from a loan from his dad to buy his first house.

"Journalists who buy that have short memories. I was living in Massachusetts when Romney first ran for the Senate, and remembered this interview with Ann Romney in the 'Boston Globe' (by Jack Thomas, October 20, 1994 . . . .)

"Of her student days with Mitt at BYU, Ann said:

“'They were not easy years. You have to understand, I was raised in a lovely neighborhood, as was Mitt, and at BYU, we moved into a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and lived there two years as students with no income.

“'It was tiny. And I didn’t have money to carpet the floor. But you can get remnants, samples, so I glued them together, all different colors. It looked awful, but it was carpeting.

“'We were happy, studying hard. Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time.

“'The stock came from Mitt’s father. When he took over American Motors, the stock was worth nothing. But he invested Mitt’s birthday money year to year — it wasn’t much, a few thousand, but he put it into American Motors because he believed in himself. Five years later, stock that had been $6 a share was $96 and Mitt cashed it so we could live and pay for education.

“'Mitt and I walked to class together, shared housekeeping, had a lot of pasta and tuna fish and learned hard lessons.'

“'We had our first child in that tiny apartment. We couldn’t afford a desk, so we used a door propped on sawhorses in our bedroom. It was a big door, so we could study on it together. And we bought a portable crib, took the legs off and put it on the desk while we studied. I had a baby sitter during class time, but otherwise, I’d hold my son on my lap while I studied.

“'The funny thing is that I never expected help. My father had become wealthy through hard work, as did Mitt’s father, but I never expected our parents to take care of us. They’d visit, laugh and say, "We can’t believe you guys are living like this." They’d take us out to dinner, have a good time, then leave.

“'We stayed till Mitt graduated in 1971, and when he was accepted at Harvard Law, we came east. He was also accepted at Harvard Business School as part of a joint program that admits 25 a year, so he was getting degrees from Harvard Law and Business schools at the same time.

“'Remember, we’d been paying $62 a month rent, but here, rents were $400, and for a dump. This is when we took the now-famous loan that Mitt talks about from his father and bought a $42,000 home in Belmont, and you know? The mortgage payment was less than rent. Mitt saw that the Boston market was behind Chicago, LA and New York. We stayed there seven years and sold it for $90,000, so we not only stayed for free, we made money. As I said, Mitt’s very bright.

“'Another son came along 18 months later, although we waited four years to have the third, because Mitt was still in school and we had no income except the stock we were chipping away at. We were living on the edge, not entertaining. No, I did not work. Mitt thought it was important for me to stay home with the children, and I was delighted.

“'Right after Mitt graduated in 1975, we had our third boy and it was about the time Mitt’s first paycheck came along. So, we were married a long time before we had any income, about five years as struggling students.

“'Now, every once in a while, we say if things get rough, we can go back to a $62-a-month apartment and be happy. All we need is each other and a little corner and we’ll be fine.'

"Ann was widely mocked for this at the time. I don’t dissent from the mockery. Her idea of her and Mitt facing 'not easy years,' having 'no income,' 'living on the edge' as 'struggling students,' was that the couple had had to face college with only sale of stock to sustain them.

"By Ann’s own account, the stock amounted to 'a few thousand' dollars when bought, but it had gone up by a factor of sixteen. So let’s conservatively say that they got through five years as students—neither one of them working—only by 'chipping away at' assets of $60,000 in 1969 dollars (about $377,000 today).

"Look. I don’t begrudge Romney’s having had his college tuition and living expenses paid for with family money. Mine were too. My background, though not as fancy as Mitt or Ann Romney’s, was privileged enough. But the guy should just come out and admit it: 'I was a child of privilege and have my parents’ wealth to thank for my education. That said, I worked very very hard in business, and the vast majority of my fortune I earned myself.' . . ."

upsidedown
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
Must have been a real fun time for them acting like the rest of us real life broke ass ghetto folks. Maybe they even didn't shop at Nordstrom's for a few years. They have no clue.

Ha ha ha Mittens, lookee at the ugly crap that we could buy at the Goodwill and Salvation Army if we was really broke like everybody else. Good thing we only have to play like ghetto people for a few years......or we might really feel some stress and become like them.

kolobian
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
Mitt and Ann's college experience is to normal college experience what camping is to experiencing homelessness...

John Henry Smith
They were adulterers. Shame on them.
Ann Romney says: "Another son came along 18 months later, although we waited four years to have the third, because Mitt was still in school ...."

This woman is a weak Saint trying to justify the sin of waiting on children and having sex for a reason other than to beget children. Married people who indulge their passions for any other purpose than to beget children, really committed adultery. Shame on them and thank goodness for the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I say these things in the name of John Taylor who called me to be an Apostle in 1880, Joseph F. Smith whose counselor I was in the First Presidency, and my son George Albert Smith who became President of the church because I beget him with one of my plural wives when we had sex instead of just doing it for pleasure and thus denying this dispensation a great prophet.

Don Bagley
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
Good thing Mitt wasn't born the son of a dumbass Mormon man with more sperm than brains. He may have had to join the Army with no college money. I'm so glad he was blessed with stocks and investments. Who knows what kind of rabble-rousing exmo he would have become without such favor?

informer
BINGO!!!
Slumming with the proles for a coupla years does not a prole make.

NeverMo in CA
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
What jumped out at me in the article was their parents' attitude:

"They’d visit, laugh and say, 'We can’t believe you guys are living like this.'"

Also clueless. I don't think most people expect college students to be living in plush surroundings.

Tabula Rasa
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
Bwahahahahahaha! When we were there (early 80's), all we could afford was a $49 basement "mole people" apartment. A $69 basement would have been twice as big as ours!! We were living off my GI-bill and buffing floors at the science center at night. We had to save for a whole month just to drive down to Springville and eat good Mexican at La Casita. Stupid morgbots we were, our fist son was born in that era and his crib was a drawer in the cabinet!! (no, we didn't close him in there at night).

Stocks to cash in? Bwahahahahahahaha! I love the comment made above about Ann not having to work a day in her life. She was at home gluing carpet scraps together. Wonder if that's on her resume'?

Bwahahahahaha!

Gimme a break.

Ron

summer
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney
NeverMo in CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Also clueless. I don't think most people expect college students to be living in plush surroundings.

Most kids that I knew in college were living pretty much the same lifestyle. We all had hand-me-down furniture and dishes, and bookshelves on cinderblocks. The only difference was that the kids from rich families usually (but not always) had cars, and sometimes even nice cars. They might have gone skiing more often, and had better stereo systems. That was about it. I didn't see a huge difference in living standards until people started making their mark in their professional careers in their late twenties.

So Ann's point that the Romneys know what it's like to be poor and struggling is flat-out ridiculous. Have they ever had their electricity turned off because they coudn't pay the bill? I think not.

imalive
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
No wonder I think of Mitt with shere contempt! Gag me with a bleeping fork! I am so glad I never feel for that breed 'em young bulls.hit.

elcid
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
I went to BYU also. I was married and lived in a basement apartment with no heat, except wood I chopped and burned in the wood burning stove. My wife worked as a house cleaner, I buffed floors in the arts building (De-Jong...I forget!). My dad was laid off, my mom was a secretary at HAFB. They didn't and couldn't have helped us. I actually remember being hungry...alot!

3X
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
The Romneys are remarkably tone-deaf for a family with pronounced political ambitions.

The "sufferings" of the Romney family and their unacknowledged presumption of privilege remind me of the incident in which Russell Nelson & spouse were mugged in Mozambique while the good Man of God was wearing a Rolex watch:

polymath
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
So, Mitt and Ann lived in a basement apartment and paid for their education with family money. He was GIVEN the stock - he didn't earn it. This is a lot different than most people.

It's the difference between someone working in order to buy an old beater car and someone getting a present of the old beater car from their parents.

And, then when they go to Harvard they get a "loan" (sounded more like a gift to me) to buy a house. So, instead of Ann and Mitt having to WORK to pay the bills - again family money.

This is like the old beater car breaking down. For regular people, they than have to take the bus or ride a bike until they can afford to get the car fixed or buy another car. For Mitt, his parents just went out and bought him a Lexus.

Yeah - poor struggling students. This whole story is Mitt trying to show how he's a regular guy and abysmally failing.

steve benson
If only . . .
Personally speaking, back in the 1970s as a bachelor BYU undergrad I lived off-campus with several friends in the "tree streets"--Maple Lane in Provo, to be exact--where I paid $42.00 a month for rent. Not exactly the Taj Mahal.

As a young married guy with a baby, I worked drawing cartoons for the "Daily Universe" campus newspaper--about $160.00 every two weeks--and paid for school with semester-by-semester academic scholarships by keeping my grades at a decent level. My former wife left her BYU secretarial studies and employment behind the on-campus Varsity Theater candy counter to become a mom while I finished my degree.

We started out in a small apartment called the Americanas on 9th East, then moved to a tiny house in the same area which was short on wall outlets and located within earshot of a loud disco called the Star Palace, as well as took up residence in a house basement in Orem.

Mode of transportation was a cheap, lime-green Datsun F-10 that my grandfather bought for me, which I eventually sold off for $500.

Those were the days.

If only I had known the hell the Romneys went through as fellow BYU ungrads, I'd be so much more appreciative.

Outcast
Just like former TX gov Ann Richards description of Prez Bush
"He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."

Dave in Hollywood
Let them eat cake!
This reminds me of the French nobility (or was it Russian?) that used to dress up as "poor people" and throw parties where they pretended to eat bad food and sleep on the floor. It's play-acting, just like Mitt & Ann.
Outcast
Oops, let's try that one again..
"He was born with a silver FOOT in his mouth."

anaon4areason
Common People
Her comments remind me of lyrics from Pulp's "Common People"

You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

anony57
Re: Just like former TX gov Ann Richards description of Prez Bush
He was born with a silver post hole digger in his mouth.

Raptor Jesus
I had help going to college. I had a great support system.
No, I didn't sell stock to pay for my college. I had some loans.

BUT! If the bottom fell out, I could always go back to my parents for support. I came from upper middle class.

What's wrong with just being honest?

Panderers!

informer
"À votre santé, товарищ!"
This reminds me of the Russian nobility, who loved everything that was NOT Russian to the extent that the first language from birth of nobility and royalty in Russia was French. Yes, French. It was that way all the way from Peter the Great to Nicholas II.

Q: How does this relate to Mitt and Ann Romney?

A: To the casual observer, it might appear that the ENTIRE Romney clan HATES America, all the while profiting handsomely from their American connections. Consider the following:

* ...ancestors who didn't agree with U.S. laws and set up shop in Mexico in order to continue violating those laws while retaining U.S. citizenship, which citizenship they were careful to claim when they conveniently needed to "flee as political refugees" back to U.S. Territory in order to avoid an inconvenient revolution in Mexico...and did I mention that they received U.S. Government aid as "refugees"?;

* ...used money to get three years' worth of college deferments and church influence to get two and a half years' worth of time in France working as a "minister," thus avoiding serving his country during the Vietnam War;

* ...established a very comfortable living being a venture capitalist / corporate raider - thousands of American jobs fail to make the cut according to new corporate bottom lines, and many jobs that remain are outsourced overseas;

* ... owns an account in a Swiss bank which was recently the target of heavy criticism from the U.S. Government for helping its American clients hide their wealth;

* ...has money parked in Luxembourg;

* ...and has more money parked in the Cayman Islands;

Where does the Romney family place their loyalties? Just like all those Russian nobles, they have no loyalty to anything but themselves: they buy power in whatever institution they wish (church, state, society) and use it, or they resell it to the highest bidder. They are the worst kind of citizen: the false kiind.

en passant
Steve and Mitt and I are of the same vintage
I too lived in a basement apartment and paid $45 in rent. I drove a 1951 Chevy I bought for $200. I paid non-resident tuition with the help of student loans that I repaid later over a period of 12 years, and I supported myself on the meager salary of a church musician without taking a dime from Mom and Dad who didn't have a dime anyway. I guess having a slug of AMC stock would have helped at the time, but it never occurred to me that anyone had that option.

I made a point not to make any babies so I didn't have that burden, and I suppose it was a difficult period by some definition. But, it was no sacrifice at all because it was the best time of my life.

Where Ann Romney's petulant little tale implodes is in her failure to acknowledge her starting place. I am successful because I was able to be successful. Even though I came from a working-class family who did not help me through college, my starting place was being white, male, smart, articulate, reasonably good looking, and able to show people that I could deliver. Unlike Steve and Mitt and I, not everyone has those gifts. And, most people don't have AMC stock and the option to stay home with babies mid-degree.

msmom
drdad and I read something like this a while ago
Both our jaws dropped at the cluelessness. At least at some point they could have admitted that they had a safety net.

Oh I see - so having grown up in a nice neighborhood it must have been really really really hard to live in a dump. Having grown up in a dump and moved to another dump I was well acquainted with dumps so I guess I had a higher tolerance than those poor babies.

Yeah, my heart bleeds!

scarecrowfromoz
Re: Mitt and Ann Romney--Portrayed by Sister Romney as Struggling, Just-Getting-By, Stock-Selling Students at BYU: How Tough It Was, Ye Know Not; How Tight It Was, Ye Know Not . . .
Wow, it must be tough living off selling your stock. Most people I knew in college in addition to everything she listed about no tables, cinder blocks, etc. had to take out student loans and still work 20-40 hours a week in addition to going to school full time.